Presentation Transcript

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Advisory Committee :

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Nature and man are interdependent; protection of the environment will be in the interest of man himself.
– Mahatma Gandhi
“ Industrial agriculture is inefficient and wasteful because it consumes and destroys more resources than it produces.”
“ We can have our cake and eat it too if we return to nature what we take from her.”
- Dr. Vandana Shiva

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Share of agriculture in national income Contribution to employment
livelihood to about 64% of the total population
employment to 58.4% of country’s work force Indian Agricultural Scenario Source of Industrial development Source: Economic Survey of India, 2006-07

Need for Organic Farming :

Need for Organic Farming World Food Summit, Rome, (1996) Food security is achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their direct needs and food preferences for an active and active healthy life
Sabharwal, Secretary, APEDA (2002): Developed countries are dependent on developing countries like India to the extent of 30-50% for their requirements of organic food products and India should seize the opportunity to tap these markets
FAO (2002) Price premium of organic products about 20-30%
Organic farming is the only way farmers can escape from the vicious cycle of debt and a negative economy. It is growing everywhere, because consumers don’t want to be poisoned with toxic residues from agrochemicals. It is also necessary from the point of view of small producers (Vandana, 2003)
Between 1998 and 2002, the compound annual growth rate of the organic food market was 17.7 percent. In 2004, the market for organic products was valued at US$27.8 billion, the largest share of organic products being marketed in Europe and North America, followed by Brazil and Middle East (IFOAM, 2006).

Definition :

Definition Organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides , growth regulators and livestock feed additives . To the maximum extent feasible it relies upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral bearing rocks and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth to supply plant nutrients and to control insects, weeds and other pests (Lampkin, 1990)
Organic agriculture is a unique production management system which promotes and enhances agro eco-system health, including bio- diversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity and this is accomplished by using on-farm agronomic, biological and mechanical methods in exclusion of all synthetic off -farm inputs (FAO, 1993).

Promotion for production and trade of organic products in India :

Promotion for production and trade of organic products in India Planning commission (2000): Steering group on agriculture and organic farming as a national challenge
NAP(2000): promotion of traditional knowledge
MOA(2000): Task force on organic farming, DAC has formulated a scheme for giving a major importance to organic farming by setting up a NIOF
MOC(2000): NPOP
National centre for organic farming, Ghaziabad
ICAR & SAUs
International Food and Vegetable Marketing Association in India
Association for promotion of organic farming (APOF), Bangalore
APEDA, Coffee Board, Spices Board, Tea Board, Coconut Development Board Cocoa and cashew nut board

Research gap :

Research gap What are the different principles, techniques and the characteristics of the organic farming?
What are the reasons for practicing organic farming?
What are the alternative ways for modern agricultural practices to make the agriculture sustainable?

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What are the productivity and economic
viability of the organic farms?
What are the training needs and perception of organic
farmers towards organic farming?
What are the constraints in organic farming and
recommendations to solve them? Contd…

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To identify and document the organic farming practices followed by the organic farmers for major two crops
To investigate the unique characteristics of the organic farmers and the reasons for practicing organic farming
To assess the productivity and economic viability of organic farms Objectives of the Study

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To study the training needs and perception of organic farmers towards organic farming
To find out the constraints in organic farming with special emphasis on marketing and to make suitable recommendations as perceived by the farmers Contd….

Unique characteristics :

Unique characteristics Padel and Lampkin(1994) : in Uk, Denmark, Canada, and the Us organic farms are typically smaller, farmers belonged to young age, well educated, urban background and had little farming experience
Sreevalsan (1995) reported that nearly two-third of the farmers were less environmentally oriented
Brad Brummond, (1999) very observant and patient, good understanding of the ecological system, good marketing skills and devote much effort and time, very open and caring people
Kaur and Kalra(2005) reported that majority of the respondents were middle age group, matriculate, 1-6 acres for area under organic farming, gross income of Rs. 18959-23642/ year/ acre from organic farming

Cost benefit analysis :

Cost benefit analysis Joint committee for ecological and Biodynamic farming (1991) : A conversion to organic agriculture can reduce energy consumption by 50%
Vander Werf and de Jager (1992) : Ecological Agriculture in South India. Ecological farms achieve similar economic results as conventional farms for gross margin/ha (Rs. 10620 and Rs.11515 respectively)
Nicanor Perlas (1994) : Long term study by Washington University at St. Louis showed that alternative agriculturists using only 40% of the energy made as much net income as conventional farmers
Lampkin and Padel (1994) Economics of organic agriculture in many developed countries (yield fall within an acceptable range)
Venkataramani(1995) case studies on organic farming in rice revealed that the net returns from the ecological farming was Rs. 8179.50 and it was Rs. 7500 in chemical farming
Margasagayam & Norman (1997) : Cost benefit analysis, impact of organic farming on yield, soil, income and expenditure, ecology, debt, health etc

Training needs :

Training needs Ramandeep Singh and Arneja(2005) : majority of the farmers needed a medium to high level of training in areas like soil management, seed rate, sowing, application of fertilizers, irrigation of drainage, weed control, pest management, harvesting and marketing
Bhagat and Khurana (1991): Training needs was high in different areas of horticultural technologies

Perception of organic farmers :

Perception of organic farmers Loganandhan(2002): increase in demand for organic products(56%), future of sustainable development (19%), Awareness would be increased (15%)
Raab and Grobe(2005): Perceptions of "organic" are both positive (such as chemical free) and negative (such as cost). Maintaining good product quality can enhance positive consumer perceptions.

Constraints in organic farming :

Constraints in organic farming Sherief (1998) : lack of information, low yield, high cost of organic inputs, high labour cost, problem of pests and diseases, skilled labour requirement, lack of credit facilities, lack of government support, low premium for organic products and lack of extension support were found to be the major constraints faced by the homestead respondents in the adoption of resource sustaining agricultural practices.
Ranganatha et al. (2001) : more cost and risk involvement in getting organic manures (vermicompost, oil cakes, etc.) transportation of green manures, lack of ready packages for growing rice organically and lack of knowledge on crop rotation, water management and biological control of pests and diseases were the major constraints faced by 60 per cent of the small farmers
Balachandran (2004) reported that climatic changes, erratic rains, unavailability of labour and high labour wage rate, pests and disease infestations, unavailability of good indigenous seeds, artificially created price slump in the harvest season forces small scale farmer to sell at under price, lack of support during transition to organic farming and lack of market facilities/consumer awareness regarding organic produce were major problems faced by the farmers’ in organic farming.

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Sampling procedure
Multistage purposive sampling Crop I Crop II District District District District Block Block Block Block Village Village Village Village Respondents
(n=50) Respondents
(n=50) Respondents
(n=50) Respondents
(n=50) Total 200 respondents

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Case Study One case study for each district: Total 4 cases

1. To identify and document the organic farming practices followed by the organic farmers for major two crops :

1. To identify and document the organic farming practices followed by the organic farmers for major two crops

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Continued…

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Independent variables: 2. To investigate the unique characteristics of the organic farmers and the reasons for practicing organic farming Contd….

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Reasons for practicing organic farming Review of literature
Schedule will be developed
Ranking based on three point continuum

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3. To assess the productivity and economic viability of organic farms Schedule will be developed
In depth interview of farmers
Cost benefit analysis

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4.To study the training needs and perception of organic
farmers towards organic farming Training needs The training needs will be identified using structured schedule covering the following
Areas in which training needed (three point continuum)
Place of training
Season and Duration of training
Training methods Contd…

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5.To find out the constraints in organic farming with special emphasis on marketing and to make suitable recommendations as perceived by the farmers to overcome them Constraints under the following headings
Input constraints
Information seeking and sharing constraints
Socio cultural constraints
Marketing constraints
Miscellaneous constraints Measurement : Ranking based on three point continuum

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Scope of the study :

Scope of the study Great help to the Tamil Nadu State Department of Agriculture, ICAR and other Development Departments for the formulation and implementation of various developmental programmes and schemes on organic farming practices.
Information on the reasons for practicing organic farming, cost benefit analysis, training needs and perception of organic farmers will reveal the efficacy of the ongoing activities for popularizing organic farming practices.
Help the development officers to modify their strategies to motivate farmers to adopt organic farming practices and to overcome the constraints.
Immense help for the planners, administrators, researchers and extension functionaries to develop and implement suitable policies and strategies for sustainable agriculture development in Tamil Nadu and India.